Abstract

Before the human exploration of Mars or long-duration missions on the Earth's moon, the risk of cancer and other diseases from space radiation must be accurately estimated and mitigated. Space radiation, comprised of energetic protons and heavy nuclei, has been shown to produce distinct biological damage compared with radiation on Earth, leading to large uncertainties in the projection of cancer and other health risks, and obscuring evaluation of the effectiveness of possible countermeasures. Here, we describe how research in cancer radiobiology can support human missions to Mars and other planets.

Author affiliations

1. Marco Durante is at the Biophysics group at GSI, Planckstrae 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany, and at the University Federico II, Monte S. Angelo, Via Cintia, 80126 Naples, Italy.
   Email: M.Durante@gsi.de
2. Francis A. Cucinotta is at the NASA Space Radiation Program located at NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Texas 77058, USA.
   Email: Francis.A.Cucinotta@nasa.gov

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